A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of voice and data communications, and more particularly to integrating call control signaling with data network access components.
B. Description of the Related Art
Third generation wireless technology and services (3G) are currently being deployed around the globe. Currently, there are two families of these technologies, the CDMA2000 standard and General Packet Radio Service/Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (GPRS/UMTS). The two competing families implement different network access technologies, however, higher layer signaling and control protocols are expected to be similar. It is believed that the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based call control signaling will be used for both CDMA2000 and UMTS networks.
Once applications become available and users increasingly adopt one of the 3G families, the new applications available to subscribers via the greater bandwidth and access to the Internet will grow in both volume and complexity. Examples of such applications include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony, and applications in which the user may access services from a mobile phone that are typically only available on purely data network connections (e.g. Web resources using the Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP)).
The present infrastructure somewhat complicates the ability for service providers to provide data network applications. Many carriers have different wireless and softswitch divisions that, in most cases, do not communicate very closely with one another. For example, when a user communicates to a data network application resource, billing information associated with that resource (e.g. volume of data communicated, session lengths, failed connections, etc.) would have to be retrieved from points in the system that are removed from the service provider's typical source of billing information. In the case of a data connection from a mobile station to a data network application via a Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN), the information would have to be retrieved from a data source and communicated to the PDSN for transmission to an Authentication, Administration, and Accounting (AAA) server.
In another example, certain applications may require quality of service policies (QoS) implemented. If call control signaling is implemented beyond the PDSN (or whatever device connects the access network to the data network), such as somewhere in the data network, additional functionalities and resources are needed to impose QoS policies. For example, resource management protocols, such as RSVP or COPS, would be needed thereby adding complexity to the system.
As 3G becomes more accepted and its use becomes more pervasive, the integration of call control signaling and network access signaling would be desirable.